We're sorry to announce that shortly after the completion of our new album, Hideki (Vo.) left the band. Without going into details, it was completely and utterly unexpected to say the least.The good news is that for the next two shows and the upcoming European tour, our vocalist from our first album, Negishi, will be joining us. Anyone who's ever seen him perform knows how exciting he is on stage. We've already had a few practices and he sounds huge, so get ready.

Friday, 23 January 2009

British doom legends WARNING have split up after 15 years of existence and two albums. The band's sole remaining original member, Patrick Walker, commented:

"The decision to discontinue WARNING has been both a pain and a purgation to me. For the past two years or so, WARNING has been a considerably important part of my life, what with travelling and playing shows, writing new music and a gradual but increasing interest in the band, largely helped by Cyclone Empire's re-releasing of both records and making them for the first time easily obtainable to people. However, I started the band in 1994. I was a different person when I began playing with WARNING; I had different musical objectives; different ideals; different influences and inspirations. Now, in order to make music that retains some semblance of integrity and wholeness, I realize I need to move on. This shouldn't be thought of as 'the end' of something; I have, after all, been the sole remaining original member of the band in its most recent lineup for almost a year now; in this respect, WARNING is little more than a band name. So before I complete work on what will be the material for the next album, I need a new band; a new context within which to work.

"I hope people continue their interest in my music, and all further information concerning it will be officially made known through Cyclone Empire with whom I am very happy to say I will continue to work as originally proposed."

WARNING debuted in 1999 with "The Strength To Dream". With this album, the band gained a cult status within doom metal circles, but they soon disbanded after their 2001 European tour with JACK FROST. They regrouped in 2005 to perform at the Doom Shall Rise festival in Germany, and released a second album, "Watching From A Distance", in 2006 to much wide acclaim. Both LPs were reissued on CD in 2008 by the label Cyclone Empire, "The Strength To Dream" featuring new artwork. At the same time, "Watching From A Distance" was released by the Metal Supremacy label as a limited-edition gatefold double-vinyl.

Saturday, 17 January 2009

And so it began:As the final nails were hammered to the coffin of Reverend Bizarre (1995-2007, R.I.P.), guitar player Peter Vicar started to follow his vision of a new True Doom Metal band. He felt forced to fulfill his need to compose and play this most arcane form of metal in the way it was meant to be, full of intensity, cruelty, heaviness, and force. Still firmly walking in the footsteps of Saint Vitus, Trouble, Witchfinder General and Pentagram, this new band will bring together an international lineup of four devoted metalheads.

Featuring Chritus (Count Raven, Saint Vitus, Terra Firma) on vocals, Jim Hunter (Revelation, WHW) on bass, Gareth Millsted (Centurions Ghost, End of Level Boss) on drums and Peter Inverted (Reverend Bizarre, Orne) on guitars, Lord Vicar released the Demon of Freedom EP on I Hate Records in 2008 (yes; these are more releases I forgot to include on my "best of 2008" list), a three song release clocking in at 15 minutes, based on a Finnish werewolf legend.

Starting off with a short intro Hiiumaa (the name of the island where the legend is based) the next two songs are pearls of traditional doom, Becoming One With The Spirit Of The Forest is like NWOBHM moving at half speed, with haunting vocals from Chritus throughout, with guitars being reminiscent of early Trouble or demo-era Anathema. Running Into A Burning House is a more up-tempo (just!) song, bringing to mind the godly Saint Vitus. This EP is ridiculously hard to get hold of now, good old Ebay seemingly the only option!

About six or seven months later, Lord Vicar released their debut full-length; Fear No Pain on The Church Within Records. Seven Tracks long, the album weighs in at just over an hour long, and it's crushing from start to finish.Opening with "Down The Nails", with solid riffing for two minutes before the vocals come in. the vocals on the album are clearer and less reverby than on the EP, floating above the music and bringing bands like Warning(RIP) to mind. Pillars Under Water picks up the pace a bit, chugging along in a Witchfinder General / Angel Witch type fashion. By the time you get to the closing track The Funeral Pyre, you have been taken through all the moods that are encompassed by different doom bands, all on one album, which I feel is in no small part down to the pedigree of all the musicians on it. It's total hetpenging heaven, a record that sounds good sat in with good quality beer, and will sound equally as good when Thee Claw are travelling down the motorway to another gig. Lord Vicar have plans for the second part of the Fear No Pain our to start in the beginning of 2009... we'll be keeping an eye out for them!

Friday, 16 January 2009

I was very sad to hear the news this week that WARNING have parted company. Their 2006 record "Watching From A Distance" was an intense and profound example of the finest doom, it's a shame that we will have no more opportunities to see them play it live.

Thursday, 15 January 2009

Only a week or so until the "Doomsday" all day gig in Wakefield. Me & Thee Boys are really looking forward to this, mainly because it includes so many top notch bands who we are into. We're especially stoked about seeing LAMP OF THOTH again, as well as PAGAN ALTAR!

We simply can't get enough of that band here in Claw Towers lately! PAGAN ALTAR are fucking awesome.

Do you think the Cover looks FALSE?? It has an arctic landscape ARG!! ONLY HOTH IS REAL!!!Total early, soulful metal with a heart like Priest and Uriah Heep. \if you don't dig this album WHERE IS YOUR GUNBELT? Listen to tracks like Radiation Day and Little Lady Liar, and it's awesome.When you hear this, you hear the Diamond-Head-covering-Maiden's-Two-Minutes-to-Midnight vibe that makes you say YES!!!! )on the track KITTEN MITTENS natch)

Do you think the cover looks a bit false? WRONG!!!! you listen to AIR ATTACK and you think YES! THIS IS TOTAL CIRITH UNGOL! but, NO! It's got some total Priest worship and if you don't recognise this then your mother never raised you in thee TRUE metal fashion!!!
Put on your best denim and metal (or whatever I just said) because this album deserves no less!!
Pay NO MIND to their appearance in top BENT film Vice Verca starring Judge Reinhold because this is a new wave (as in NEW WAVE OF FUCKIN' BRITISH HEAVY METAL) crossed with CIRITH UNGOL madness!
NOW LISTEN AND MELT ARRRRRRG

Do you think the cover looks a bit false? Like the kind of thing you would flip past in the second hand record shop on your way to some Pantera twelve inch? or some 1996 Metallica boots? Well, more fool you Metallifags! This is a fucking solid slab of metal fury, worshipping the gods of Maiden, White Spirit and Priest, with total speed attack arrrrg!!!Now...watch and melt!!!

When Wolves in The Throne Roomwere invited to play Roadburn 2008 at the very last minute nobody expected that they would be one of the major highlights of the festival. From the first note till the last the Green Room was packed and in full anticipation of the ferocious mix of ambient sounds and aggressive black metal that the four piece brought to the stage.

WITTR - 'Live at Roadburn '08' captures the band at their peak in audio and video [the DVD will only be included in the first pressing of the album, limited up to 500 copies --The first 100 come in gold vinyl with a silkscreen!]. Both audio and video were remixed and remastered for this release. Please click HEREfor the on demand audio webcast of Wolves In The Throne Room Live at at Roadburn '08.

Check out this clip of Satyricon, taken at the gig that I attended in Leeds. The gig happened about 6 weeks ago, so I am slightly late with this, haha. In case you were wondering, I shot this video using a D90 camera (many thanks to the kind people at Rios nightclub and also Satyricon's tour manager for arranging that). The original clip looks amazing, it's a shame that uploading it to Youtube has dramatically degraded the image quality. Ah well.

Bonus points to the 1st hetpenger who comments to say the name of the song they're playing.

Sunday, 4 January 2009

Bit of a slow time at the moment, because we are in the no-man's land between the end of one year and the start of the next.Some things that have been tickling my ears this week (including a few that should have been in the bast releases of 2008 but I somehow forgot):

Angst Skvadron - Fluct (Agonia Records 2008)Avant-garde, space obsessed Black Metal from Urgehal mainman Nefas.Any album that uses the five note communication sequence from Close Encounters as an intro to a black metal song is worthy of attention.The Devil's Blood - Come Reap (Ván 2008)Occult-obsessed retro rock from one of my favourite bands of last year. I'd been listening to this that much that I forgot to put it into the best of 2008 list. Five new tracks on this LP, following on in the vein of the 2007 demo and the Graveyard Shuffle 7".Forbidden (US) - Twisted Into Form (Combat 1990)Total old school thrash classic. If you don't love this you don't love thrash.Amazing non-falsetto vocals from Russ Anderson, and spot on drumming from Paul Bostaph before he ruined himself joining jock-rock titans Slayer. Currently redeeming himself in Testament.Deep Purple - Burn (EMI 1974)Glenn Hughes and David "Thee Squire" Coverdale join the band on this album, and it still sounds like a breath of fresh air 35 years(!) later.Flux of Pink Indians - Neu Smell (Crass Records 1981)Angry, meat-free anarcho punk from Hertfordshire. Tube Disaster still makes me smile, for some reason.Think Crass, think Rubella Ballet.Gehennah - Hardrocker (Primitive Art 1995)What can I say about this album? It really needs it's own post on this zine, a big long post about Say Hello to Mr Fist and Skeletons in Leather. It's hard to imagine this album being anything other than tongue in cheek, but Gehennah were deadly serious.If you like early Venom and the direction Darkthrone are moving in at the moment, you could do a lot worse than getting hold of Gehennah's back catalogue and drinking some good European beer listening to it in your leather jacket/patched denim vest.

Thee Boys:

THEE CLAW: SJW, Skum & Thee Patchie

Thee What?

Thee Claw started in 2006, and began as our excuse to listen to as much music as possible, see as many bands as possible, and travel as much as possible.

So what we plan to give you here is lists of upcoming gigs, reviews, photos and videos from gigs we've been to, and mentions of whatever musical releases are floating our boats at any given time. An all-purpose metal zine for the discerning music fan!

We used to post claw-based posts sporadically on our own seperate blogs, but after the awesome tour of 2007 decided to bring it all together in one place, and we hope you enjoy it.

Want a review? Get in touch with us here, and we'll get along or give your demo a spin.

Thee Fucking Claw is a philosophical movement created to make things 1000% cooler. It demands a constant stream of goals such as high-rate gig attendance, plenty of new music to listen to & lots of traveling.

Everyone has their own Claw, you just have to know how to tune into it.